The Alpha Mates

PILOT - Chapter One: Betrayal

LILLY’S POV:

“Hah! Hah! Ha-” I pant as I continue to run in my wolf form. I may be alpha but right now I’m just a woman. A broken woman. You see werewolves don’t have husbands or wives. Instead we have a mate, a soul mate, our forever mate. We only have one mate given to us by the moon goddess. Our one true mate. Mine just rejected me. My wolf throws back her head and howls at the moon in pain. I feel her pain and she feels mine. Our mate, another Alpha, said he didn’t want us.

“Mates are just a burden.I don’t need one. I don’t need you. I Alpha Dean Arvel reject you Alpha Lilly Carter as my mate.”

That is exactly what he said to me. Not to mention that’s all it took to break the mate bond. I can't hear him, feel him, sense him, smell him. Everything just… vanished. Our mind link was broken too. The agony I felt in that moment can not be described and looking at his face you could tell he felt it too. “f**k!” he swore so loud it was almost a roar. Then we both shifted and ran off in opposite directions. Do I regret it? No.

Oooooh man. I just remembered. THE HAZE! A sort of mating ritual of sorts if you will. It will be our first and without a mate when you’ve been rejected and the haze comes it’s extremely painful for both parties. He and I will be in extreme pain. Yet I know we’ll both have other wolves and humans under our packs protection throwing themselves at our feet. We were like celebrities after all, not to mention pack royalty.

Several days go by and the haze starts. Every day is excruciating. Today my friends have invited me out to dinner. It’s a restaurant on the edge of pack lands that’s considered neutral territory. The second he rejected me our packs became enemies though. That’s gotta be painful for some mated pairs because they now have to decide whether or not to betray their pack and go to the other side.

When we get there the restaurant is split down the middle with velvet ropes and it’s PACKED. I’ve never seen it so fu- Oh yeah. I cringe feeling guilty that WE created this mess. I get some glares and some sympathetic smiles and others ignore me all together. It takes me a while to realize but on the other side of the restaurant I spot the reason. It’s HIM. My FORMER mate. The second our eyes lock the arousal starts to build.

We get seated at our table and I immediately start staring at my hands in my lap as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. “Lilly?” My best friend calls my name like a question. So I answer her,

“Yes sorry what?”

“Are you okay?”

“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Silence. Nobody wants to answer. Nobody wants to bring up the rejection.

“Alpha…?”

A timid male voice calls to me.

“I just wanted to thank you again for granting my family and I safe haven. We are in your debt. If there’s anything I can do for you in return please let me know. Sorry for interrupting your ev

ening. E-enjoy your dinner.”

He retreats just as quietly as he approached. What was his name again? Ah yes! Jimmy, Jimmy Liveworthy. A fitting name.

Shortly the waiter arrives to take our order. All the while she’s eyeing me with lust. God I hate this. I want to go home where I can suffer in peace. We all place our orders but she doesn’t leave. Not before offering to warm my bed and help me stave off the pain for the night. My eyes find Deans and I don’t answer. After a while she goes away. She comes  back shortly with our meals and hovers as if waiting for an answer to her earlier answer or praise. But again she leaves after I don’t say anything.

My friends talk joyously around me. Laughing and having a genuinely good time as they eat their meal. I just eat in silence. Having hime so close and yet so far is painful for me.

Later just before we leave the restaurant I excuse myself to the bathroom. As soon as I’m in a stall the atmosphere changes hitting me like a sack of bricks. Suddenly I’m panting with need. I need to relieve myself somehow. I slide my hand through the thigh high slit in the side of my dress and jam my hand into my lace underwear. My fingers squelching inside myself as I finger the inside. It’s hot and wet between my legs with my arousal almost at its peak. And then the unexpected happens.

The door to the bathroom slams open. As a familiar scent hits my nostrils I feel a sense of want and need so strong it surprises me. His familiar footsteps clack across the bathroom floor. “I know you’re in here.” He growls. How? I smell him! I feel him! I sensen him! But how? Our bonds were broken weren’t they? “I need you. To feel you. To be close to you. To be…” He trails off. I thrust my fingers faster desperately trying to relieve myself but my body won't be sated. Not with him so near. The first stall door slams open. “Where are you?” He growls again. My heart leaps at the familiar reverberating rumble. His possessiveness. I have to suppress a  moan as a second stall door slams open. Two more until he finds me. I need to finish! The other two doors slam open in quick succession. I can now see his feet. He stands right in front of the stall. I wait with baited breath. I know that a flimsy locked metal door won't stop him. I surrender. In that moment he picks up his foot and slams his heel into the lock effectively breaking it. Shattering it!

He groans and I can see he’s trying to stop himself but it’s no use. He grabs both my wrists effectively, pinning my hands above my head. He growls then “MINE! You are MINE and nobody else's.” He rips my underwear off me, the lace falling in shreds at our feet. He opens his belt and my breathing and heartbeat speed up in anticipation. He enters me with surprising force effectively claiming me as his. The build up then the release, the ecstasy, the euphoria of it all leaves us both panting and breathless but neither of us is finished. The haze has effectively taken it’s hold.

He scoops me up in his arms and before I realize where we’re going we’re in his car on the way to his Packhouse. Once inside we’re on each other again tearing each others clothes off as we go. We don’t leave his room for the rest of the night. I wake up the next day in the afternoon thinking it was all a dream but to my dismay I look up and see the familiar ceiling of his room. My wounds are still fresh. I dare to cast a glance at my shredded dress in the corner of the room and sight as reality hits me.

I put on the clothes I left last time I was here as I remember the events of the night prior. He claimed me! He called me his! The audacity! How could he say that after what he’d said only days prior? It still hurts. Why? He must just be giving me false hope. Just using me to satiate his needs during the haze. He’ll reject me again every day until the end of time if he has to. I just know it! I make my way downstairs where I see his Beta, Max, grinning at me with two piping hot mugs of coffee in his hands. Grinning, he holds one out to me. A peace offering? Or… Do I dare to hope?

“Long night?”

“You could say that.”

I responded not thinking much of it.

“*chuckles* So he gave in huh?”

“Huh?

I was confused at his remark.

“You see Alpha and Beta Senior and I had a bet on how long it would take him to give into the pull.”

“Pull?”

I ask even though I know the answer. I felt it too after all.

“Do I dare? You know…”

“Hope?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Well it’s tricky to tell with him. What did he say?”

“He...’”

I trail off lost in thought of the memories of the night prior. He claimed me. There is no other way, no other term to explain it. I had wanted it. I wanted him. My need to have him be mine and I his was strong and seemingly impossible to fight. Did I want to fight it? Yes and no. Did I feel the need to fight it? On some level yes. Could I fight it? God no! But I had sure as hell tried. 

“He claimed me.”

I said this, after a good ten maybe fifteen minutes, finally answering Max’s question. Max gave me a wolfish grin.

“Try the link.”

The link… The mate link that all mates share. I tried to project my feelings of hurt, of hope, of wanting, of guilt, somehow knowing he’d feel it. He’d feel it all. Next thing we both knew the door banged open. He stood there panting and gripping the frame for support. His arm muscles bulged and flexed as the raised veins pulsed visibly. He cautiously looked up at me through thick dark lashes. Pain, sorrow, or was it regret? And of course (Why of course?) guilt was clear in his eyes.

HIS POV:

The link! It’s alive again! I can feel her! I can smell her… The energy in the air changed. Pain so extreme hit me in an instant. I could feel hers as well as my own. What a fool I’d been. I adored her. I couldn’t help it. I wanted her so badly it scared me. So like a fool I had rejected her. The hurt and pain in her eyes almost brought me to my knees in agony.

We’d been best friends since childhood. Our packs shared a border and our fathers a strong brotherly bond. She was my first crush, my first love. I wanted her to be my first everything but growing up she liked someone else. A human boy from our school caught her eyes and captivated her. She thought he must be her mate. That is until the moon goddess shattered both our perfect worlds by making us mates. Well I say perfect but obviously my world wasn’t as perfect as I would’ve liked. Why? Because I didn’t have her.

My father had just officially handed over the title and responsibilities of Alpha to me and I was overwhelmed and of course I’d never wish to add to her own stressful alpha duties so I kept it a secret. She wouldn’t know I was her mate until two years later. Seeing her fawn over another while I pined after her knowing she was my mate was pure torture. I guess another reason I rejected her was out of jealousy. I wanted her to feel at least a fraction of the pain I’d already felt for two whole years. It was clearly a mistake.

Just days after rejecting her our link comes alive again as if it were just a trial rejection or the moon goddess was giving me a mental kick in the ass to remedy my mistake. Either way I’ll take it. I follow her into the women's bathroom. I growl as I bang open door after door telling her how much I need her. I can sense her panic. She wants to get through this on her own. She’s hurting because of me and doesn’t want anything to do with me. Damn that hurts. “NO! PUSH THROUGH! SHE NEEDS YOU! SHE NEEDS ME! SHE NEEDS US!” My wolf practically screams at me so loud I have to mentally block him. “HEEL!” I order him in my alpha voice.

Last door… That’s it! No more hide and seek. I’m done playing games. I slam my heel into the lock. I make my way to her pinning her arms up above her head so she can’t push me away.

Relief? She feels relief at the sight of me? I’m stunned into inaction for a moment but it doesn’t last. I pin her and take her right there but first I need to make my intentions clear. “MINE! You are MINE and nobody else's.” I growl at her before I have my way with her. We won't be sated with just this though. I need her under me and I need it now. After that everything’s a blur.

I wake the next morning to her scent, her presence, her heat, her tiny frame as she sleeps beside me. I stare down at her propped up on my elbows and gaze out the window. Daybreak… I don’t want to leave her side but I know I have to. I grab a shower, get dressed, make myself a coffee and enter my office. I call her father to let her know she’s okay and here with me. I explain to him about the mate bond and he’s surprised but doesn’t question it. In fact he seems happy. Extremely so. By the end of our conversation I’ve finished my coffee. Train, workout, run, alpha duties I think to myself as I plan out my day in my head.

Later, mid run I feel her. s**t. She still feels the pain of my rejection, she feels a very faint hope that we could fix this, she wants me, she feels guilty for all the pain our rejection has caused others. Damnit! Why didn’t I think of that? Leah, my sister, Leah’s mate is part of Lilly’s pack. Oh how stupid ca- Another wave of feelings, stronger this time. “...want...see you. Pl...s…?” The mind link! It’s not fully repaired but I get the message and kicking it into overdrive I sprint for the packhouse.

I get there and barge in. I slam the door open, probably damaging the wall in the process. “LILLY! She’s ours again right? RIGHT?” My wolf is going nuts but I can’t bring myself to meet her eyes as she stands on the stairs with a mug of coffee in her hands. My beta Max like a brother to me and with me since childhood has apparently been talking to her. Probably filling her head with ridiculous thoughts. I dare to sneak a glance at her seeing my own pain reflected back at me in her eyes and something else… uncertainty? I’ve never seen her so vulnerable. s**t. I did this. I have to fix this. I regret rejecting her. I feel guilty now for causing others to feel as if they need to choose sides. Even my own sister who I now notice has a duffle bag at her feet and her jaw open wide in disbelief at the scene in front of her. “You’re on your own mate.” Max says, patting me on the shoulder before walking past. Jackass.

I steal another glance at the beautiful woman before me. Before I realize what I’m doing I close the gap between us taking her coffee from her hands and setting it on the nearest table I pull her into my embrace. Her tiny frame fits with my large frame so perfectly. “I’m sorry.” I say quietly so only she can hear. She seems to understand and nuzzling into my abs she says “I believe you. And… I forgive you.”

A sudden weight lifts off my chest and with no more hesitation I lift her high into the air with a grin chuckling above my head then bring her down crashing my lips fiercely against hers. I try my best to convey all my love and adoration for her to her as I breathe in her wonderful scent that I can smell once again. I mind link her.

“I love you. I adore you. Two full years I knew while you pinned over HIM. It was excruciating. But now you’re mine. MINE! Oh how I love that word.

“HEEL!”

Her wolf… My wolf and I can’t help but whimper in response. Oh the things this girl does to me.

“Why?”

My wolf dares to ask her.

“Can’t you be excited like us?”

“Pain… It still hurts. We’re willing to try again but you know neither of us will survive another rejection.”

I nod, putting her down as I do so. But wait… What if being with me puts her in da-

“Quit it. You’re starting to spiral ya dumb mutt!”

Her wolf chastises me this time. I rub my neck giving her a sheepish look. Damn. Why do I keep screwing up?

“So does this mean I don’t have to break pack bond to be with my mate? I don’t have to move out either?”

Leah, my sister, asks us timidly out loud. Lilly answers her,

“I think you’re safe here Leah.”

Then suddenly Lilly’s eyes glaze over and she goes rigid. When she comes to…

“I have to go.”

“What’s wrong?”

“None of your concern.”

“Bullshit. Everything to do with you concerns me. YOU ARE MY MATE. Now lets try this again shall we? What’s wrong?”

She closes her eyes and takes a deep steadying breath.

“Rouges.”

“How many?”

“Five.”

“The largest in the group wants to challenge me. Second largest wants to challenge my Beta. The third wants to challenge my Gamma.”

“In other words… A mini pack is challenging you because they’re POWER HUNGRY.”

“Yup. That pretty much sums it up.”

“Shift and meet me out front. I need to get a few people.”

“But Dean!”

I give her a look and she complies. I hold the door open for her wolf as she shifts.